The present invention is directed to a vaporized fuel injection system for internal combustion engines and more specifically, to a system for vaporizing the fuel in a heated chamber and introducing the vaporized fuel and preheated compressed air into an intake manifold for distribution to the combustion chamber and subsequently controlling the temperature of the engine by directly injecting a finely atomized liquid coolant spray directly into the combustion chamber.
For many years, there has been an ongoing quest to achieve complete combustion of an air/liquid fuel charge within the combustion chamber of an engine in order to reduce exhaust emissions while increasing fuel economy. However, it is extremely difficult to meter, finely atomize the liquid fuel and blend the same with the intake air stream in order to approach complete combustion of the mixture. It is also extremely difficult to ensure reliable ignition of the lean air/liquid fuel charge within the combustion chamber and to manage the high temperatures associated with the complete combustion of the air/fuel mixture. Any attempt to introduce liquid hydrocarbon fuel into the intake air stream of a normally aspirated internal combustion engine, guarantees a fuel rich air/fuel mixture eliminating any possibility of complete combustion, thereby guaranteeing the production of carbon monoxide. Liquid fuel/air mixtures will not burn. Part of the liquid fuel must vaporize into vapor fuel and intermingle with the oxygen contained within the intake air before the mixture will burn.
An early pioneer in the field of vaporized fuel/air mixtures for internal combustion engines was Charles N. Pogue, who obtained the following U.S. Patents for carburetors for providing a vaporized fuel/air mixture for introduction into internal combustion engines:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. 1,750,354 March 11, 1930 CARBURETOR U.S. Pat. No. 1,869,531 June 9, 1931 CARBURETOR U.S. Pat. No. 1,938,497 December 5, 1933 CARBURETOR U.S. Pat. No. 1,997,497 April 9, 1935 CARBURETOR U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,798 January 7, 1936 CARBURETOR ______________________________________
In each of the Pogue patents, gasoline is sprayed into a heated chamber wherein the atomized liquid gasoline will vaporize and air under pressure is introduced into the chamber. The combustible mixture of air and vaporized gasoline is then introduced into the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine. However, by having a vaporized gasoline mixed with the air externally of the intake manifold, the danger of premature combustion of the mixture is increased.